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Steve Poizner Joins Rossier and Viterbi Boards  Steve Poizner, technology entrepreneur and education reform advocate, recently joined the boards of councilors for both the USC Rossier School of Education and Viterbi School of Engineering. Poizner spent a year as a volunteer teacher at Mount Pleasant High School in San Jose, Calif., where he taught 12th grade American government, and wrote Mount Pleasant, a New York Times bestselling book about his teaching experience. He went on to co-found EdVoice, a statewide organization that advocates education reform and promotes issues such as charter schools, accountability and local control, and the California Charter Schools Association, the state's leading charter school organization. Read the story. |
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CERPP Conference and Report Highlighted
 Inside Higher Ed highlighted a conference held last week by the USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice (CERPP), on admissions reform. The center also released the report "Enrollment Management, Inc.: External Influences on Our Practice," written by the center's executive director, Dr. Jerry Lucido, and Scott Schulz of the USC Rossier School. The report looks at the history and breadth of the enrollment management industry, and calls for closer examination of whether it is advancing educational values. Read it here.The sessions of the three-day conference, The Case for Change in College Admissions, were captured in blog posts on the center's website. To read the blog, click on the date of your choice. |
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Hentschke Discusses Extended Year at Catholic Schools
Dr. Guilbert Hentschke was interviewed by KCAL/CBS News about the announcement that the Archdiocese would extend the school year at Catholic elementary schools in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties from 180 to 200 days.
Hentschke said research shows more time in school results in better outcomes for students, in general, but the one-size-fits-all approach might have a less meaningful impact for students who are already high performers than their lower performing counterparts.
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Polikoff Presents on the Impact of Budget Cuts
 The South Pasadena Patch stated that Dr. Morgan Polikoff would participate in a community forum on the future of public education in Glendale last Saturday, Jan. 29. The forum was called in response to a $17 billion cut in education to address how to tackle the latest Sacramento budget and improve school programs. A coalition of PTAs from South Pasadena, Burbank, Glendale, La Canada and Pasadena held the event to inform parents, with presentations by EdSource and Polikoff, who, the story notes, is an expert on No Child Left Behind and its effect on students. Read more. |
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New Publications By Darnell Cole  Dr. Darnell Cole has had several articles published in recent months. These include: Debunking Anti-intellectualism: An examination of African American Students' Intellectual Self-Concept. Review of Higher Education, 34(2), 259-282. Examining the Antecedents and Consequences of College Students' High-Risk Sexual Health Behaviors. Journal of American College Health, 25(4), 176-185. The Role of Faculty Contact on Minority Students' Educational Gains. Journal of the Professoriate, http://jotp.icbche.org/. The Effects of Student-Faculty Interactions on Minority Students' College Grades: Differences between Aggregated and Disaggregated Data. Journal of the Professoriate, http://jotp.icbche.org/. |
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CCT to Host Visiting Scholar from Korea  During 2011, the Center for Cognitive Technology (CCT) will be hosting a distinguished visiting scholar from Korea, Dr. Yung Suhk Suh. Suh serves as the Executive Director of the Korea Education & Research Information Service (KERIS), the largest of the three most prominent Korean Educational Research Centers. He will be working with Dr. Richard Clark, Co Director of CCT.
KERIS is responsible for information technology and its use in Korean education. It focuses on programs and technologies such as Cyber education, e-learning, teacher uses of technology, Cyber homeschooling, Edunet (the online resources put together by the Korean Ministry of Education several years ago, mainly for elementary school teachers and students), RISS (educational technology use in academic research), NEIS (Technology use in educational administration) and many other programs. |
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CEG Designs Louisiana Charter School System and Leads Discussion about "Parent Trigger"
 The Center on Educational Governance (CEG) recently was awarded a $70,000 planning grant from the state of Louisiana and the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives to design a statewide charter school indicator system. Louisiana has the largest proportion of students in charter schools than any other state. The indicator system, which is based on Charter School Indicators-USC (now in its 6th year), is being developed with stakeholders from Louisiana's charter school community, local foundations, the Recovery School District and the Louisiana Department of Education. The system will be piloted with charter schools in New Orleans in the coming months.  Dr. Penny Wohlstetter, director of CEG, was also interviewed last week about the California parent trigger law on KPCC. Last week, Compton school district officials were asking parents to verify their signatures on a petition to turn McKinley Elementary School over to a charter school operator under the new law. Critics argued the process was illegal, and parents who already signed the petition shouldn't be forced to return to identify themselves. "The process is messy because of the politics," said Wohlstetter. She said the law gives parents unprecedented voice over how to assert more control over chronically low-performing schools. Read the story or listen here. |
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CUE Hosts Delegation of Nevada Higher Ed Leaders and Participates on Community College Panel in Sacramento
Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon, Linda Wong and Dr. Sandra Luca of CUE hosted a delegation from the Nevada System of Higher Education on Tuesday, January 25th to discuss next steps in the Center's two-year partnership with the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (WICHE).
With funding from the Ford Foundation, CUE is assisting WICHE member states in achieving their college completion goals. The working meeting will focus on preliminary data from Nevada's colleges and universities, as well as CUE's work with other higher education systems. 
On January 24, Bensimon participated on a panel on student success and completion for the California Community College League's annual legislative conference in Sacramento.
Other panelists included the Chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, President of the LA College Faculty Guild, and a representative of the LA Chamber of Commerce.
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Ragusa, Riconscente & Corwin Participate in Workshop
Dr. Gisele Ragusa, Dr. Michelle Riconscente, and Dr. Zoe Corwin were invited to participate in the Gates/MacArthur/USC workshop last week.
The workshop brought together representatives from four different, not typically connected groups: (1) school practitioners and common core standards experts; (2) game designers; (3) game engagement/user research cognitive psychologists; and (4) assessment experts.
Ragusa and Riconscente participated as assessment experts, Corwin was a core content expert. Corwin also led a workshop in conjunction with Elizabeth Swensen, a colleague from the Game Innovation Lab @ USC, where they designed a game for middle school students that emphasized how the decisions students make in middle school affect their futures.
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Alumna Accepts Assistant Dean Post at NYU 
Dr. Kate Baxter (Ed.D '10) has recently accepted a position at New York University (NYU) in the College of Arts and Science as the Assistant Dean of Freshmen.
She currently serves as Director, Student Support Programs and Women in Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. She will start her new position toward the end of February.
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Ed.D. Student Named Vice Chancellor at LACCD
 Ed.D. candidate Felicito (Chito) Cajayon has been named Vice Chancellor for Economic and Workforce Development for the Los Angeles Community College District. Cajayon will oversee efforts to develop and improve career and technical education programs for the 250,000 students served by the LACCD. He will seek to expand local, state and federal funding sources, and advance regional partnerships so that the District can continue to be a leader in the workforce and economic development arena. Cajayon, who assumes the vice chancellor's post on January 14, has been the LACCD's Dean of Resource and Economic Development since 2008. Read more. |
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Office Of Professional Development Gets Boeing Grant
The Office of Professional Development was awarded a $50,000 grant from the Boeing Foundation through our partnership with the Neighborhood Academic Initiative Office of USC Community Relations.
The purpose of the grant is two-fold:
An Algebra 1 Laboratory will be developed for 12 teachers at Manuel Arts, Foshay and 32nd Street School. The program will be held partially in person and partially online, and will start this Spring and continue through June 30, 2012. Dr. Laila Hasan is the faculty lead.
A significant portion of the funds are making it possible to build and develop this community of learners online in an LMS. Dr. Anthony Maddox is overseeing this part of the grant. The goal is to not only support the USC Family of Schools but to create an environment where program graduates can return to form learning communities. The new LMS is being designed and managed by Ryan Best, Rossier Director of Instructional Technology.
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Assessing Your Federal Research Opportunities in 2011
USC Office of Federal Relations is hosting its annual workshop to help faculty and staff learn about the funding outlook for extramural research at federal agencies as a new Congress takes office and the Obama administration identifies new priorities for 2011. The seminar will prepare faculty to connect their research goals with federal research trends and influence programs and priorities at federal agencies, thereby improving their grant applications. Featuring experts from Lewis-Burke Associates, a federal research and education consulting firm: § Erica Froyd: National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Resources and Services Agency, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Food and Drug Administration, and Veterans Administration. § Sarah Spreitzer: Department of Education, Housing and Urban Development, Department of Justice, Department of Labor, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and Institute of Museum and Library Services. § Michael Ledford: National Science Foundation, Transportation, Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and NASA. § Franklyn Steinberg: Department of Energy, Department of Defense, USDA, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and State Department. Wednesday, February 16, 2011 4:00 - 5:30 pm University Park Campus Credit Union Building, Room 329 More information about the event. Please RSVP to khicklin@usc.edu. Space is limited. |
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